This was a tremendous game between two friends from the same club who put on a terrific show of all round table tennis. Unfortunately for jack his start was not enough but it didn’t stop him playing all out, using his accurate returns to keep Max from the table and putting in his loop shots. Some superb rallies were seen with all out driving shots from both players. The first game was really tight with the game going to deuce but eventually it went to 24-22 with Max coming out on top.

The second two games were not quite as close but Jacks head never went down and he fought all the way before going down 21-17 in both games. Max now progresses to the semi-finals where he joins Matt Greenwood.

Desperadoes v Brandon B

Desperadoes turned out regulars matt Greenwood, Nigel Duffin and John Reid against the travelling Brandon team of Paul Henderson, Lynn Reilly and the young emerging talent of Troy Maddison.

For the last game of the season, only local pride between the local clubs but Matt greenwood wasn’t going to let his averages down and won all his singles in three ends. He also took the doubles with Nigel Duffin. Nigel himself took two games as did John Reid. The real success of the Brandon team was Troy who beat both Nigel Duffin an exciting 5 ender and also John Reid to give Brandon 2 merit points but no league points as Desperadoes ran out 8-2 winners.

Chargers v East Boldon B

Chargers replaced their usual squad with Dennis Jennings who played alongside Max Duffin and Peter Whitfield against an East Boldon team who are missing their best player Peter Smallcombe who moved up to the A team. This does give the opportunity for further development however and Jordan Dove joined Jim Collar and Bruce Davison for the match. Chargers aren’t in the top three for nothing though and with Max sweeping all in front of him he was ably supported by Dennis Jennings winning two of his games and taking the doubles with him, and ‘Nets’ Whitfield playing his usual lucky play to pick up two games. Jim Collar was the star for East Boldon with a mixture of strong defensive play and attacking with a deceptive backhand drive taking two games. Praise must go to Jordan Dove who not only plays the right shot at the right time but has a really positive attitude to the game and is a credit to the production stable that East Boldon have. Result 8-2 to Chargers giving them all 4 points.

Bombers v Durham CA

Bombers after a slow start have had a good season and are looking possible promotion contenders but need a couple of catch up games to put them in the same position sat their rivals. This was one of the catch up games against the very experienced Durham CA team which included one of the best players in the league Brian Bateman, backed up with his fellow team mates, Billy Upton and Paul Wiggins. Bombers who have sometime struggled for a team had the reliable pair of Dan Nicholson and Nigel Coe along with the youngster Dan Hutchinson, who is certainly improving in every game he plays.

Brian Bateman who has only lost 2 games all season showed his experience by taking all his matches and helped by Billy Upton took the doubles. This however was the only successes for Durham as Bombers took the rest, the game of the night being the last one between Brian and Dan Hutchinson, which was in fact meaningless for either team as the score was 6-3.

This didn’t stop a blood and thunder game in front of a hushed audience, with young Dan pursuing the loop at every opportunity to drive Brain back, but with Brian’s exceptional defensive style and his devastating backhand drive he proved more than a match and took the final game 3-1.

This does give Bombers 3 important points and takes them within a whisker of runners up spot with a game in hand.

Bombers v Redby B

Dan Hutchinson is enjoying a fantastic run of form and with Ian McPherson and Nigel Coe travelled to Redby against the stalwarts of Howard Foster, Ian Wilson and Ron Douglas needing maximum points to maintain their challenge for promotion. The result did not reflect the competitiveness of the games, with Howard Foster taking every Sacriston player to 5 ends before being defeated and both Ian and Ron taking most ends to within a couple of points. Bombers however maintain their positive results with a 10-0 win and maximum points.

Lanchester A V Eagles

Eagles have had a tough end to the season having to play the two top teams in their last two matches. But they can consider their season a success when they have played 75% of their games with players who are 13 year old or younger and one of them Jack Pugh is 20th in the league averages. The last game of the season saw the return Of Barry Dingwall, who was joined by Oliver King and Aidan McKie and they were up against three of the best players in the league(all in the top 10 averages) Dave McAllister, Thaquib Saleem and Liam Ord. the result was a predictable 10-0 but the Eagles worked hard and Aidan McKie was unlucky with a good performance against both Liam and Thaquib.

Thompson A V Aces

This was the return of a fairly acrimonious game earlier in the season, but no such feelings emerged as the game was played in a friendly atmosphere.

Thompson turned out one of their strongest squad using regulars Marc Cotton, Andrew Wilkinson but drafting in Anthony Barella for only his second game this season. Aces had their usual 3 from 4 and played Ian McAllister, Duncan Fraser and Wlademar Dzwonkowski, with Jon Mawson partnering Ian McAllister in the doubles.

Some close games were played and Aces managed an end in the doubles but the only success was Waldemar who beat Marc Cotton, and took Andrew to 4 ends, and Anthony to 5. Result 9-1 to Thompson A meaning they are clear Division 1 winners with only a handful of games left. Congratulations to them.